blog post Today on Lanarama: Techie Tuesday! Online Searches & You. Do You Want to be Found?

"Do you want to be found online, or hidden?"

For the most part I like being reasonably hidden, although not completely.

"What measures have you gone to to keep your privacy or gain more online exposure?"

Probably not enough to remain reasonably hidden.

continuation of last thread:

Aww...don't be ashamed of your name. I bet it's really cool too! You can share if you'd like...

but it's still important:

Alanna Shaikh, a blogger at UN Dispatch has some advice on how to NOT help those in Haiti

Don’t donate goods.

Don’t go to Haiti.

Don’t ignore rebuilding.

Check out the link for more details on why those are not helpful...

@melshim:

I am of similar mind.  I prefer to avoid posting anything stupid (or avoid doing anything too stupid in the first place :P )

UBC has a resource for students trying to manage their online presence.  Most of the information is more relevant if you are a student, but it applies to everyone: Digital Tattoo

I am not a limited profile person at all. I'm pretty much all in. On Facebook and stuff like that, I would limit individuals' access to my profile. I wear my heart on my sleeve, my twitter, my facebook and my blog.

I did not know I could set up a profile on here till today! That's next!!

My name in Google comes up as a holstein rancher in Lubbock, Tx.

I really don't want my employer and clients to know my off hour activities.

So, I googled myself just last night, and found that even though I used 2 pseudonyms for my Twitter account, my real name has been attached to my Tweets.  They could only have done this by linking to my e-mail account name.  So, my computer nerd is coming for dinner, and we gotta figure a way to unlink them.

However, all credit to facebook, there was no trace of me, just the way I like it.

I'm fourth down on google search and its my blogger profile, not a lot to see there anyways.  I think the second one, the Lucas Kitchen on twitter is my doppleganger emailer, then after that its mostly results about kitchens.  Tis unavoidable when your last name is the place where you cook your meals

But I have in the past...

If you google me now the first result that comes up is a post on Contrarian's blog that links to mine. My facebook along someone else of the same name shows up too. I'm fine with an online presence, but I do exercise a few of the privacy options on FB.

Dear Mel,

thanks! I was curious...Is that first and middle name, or just your middle name?

I generally try to avoid putting things online that I want to keep private.  I don't have that much that I'm not willing to share, and I don't have a lot of faith in privacy policies and such.

I do wish that something like this but finished and easy to use was available.  Sometimes I play with creating such a thing, but I get distracted pretty fast.

LAURA SMITH IS AMAZING!!!!

(no advice for band names though, we're clearly bad at that)

Lana! I googled myself, people can find out so much, things I can't necessarily control, things writen in newspapers, that my employers and university posted... people can find out where I went to school, the degree I got, the city I live in, so I guess the fact I have myself hidden on facebook is something but lots of other ways for people to learn about me.... but my music name industry (my cbc name) is not as revealing.

people can hire companies to get their names to come up first in searches. There is a company in Kelowna that does it. People are controlling these things too!

Keep in mind it isn't Google selling those rankings.  Those companies can try to make someone the first hit, and they can do it pretty often, but they can't guarantee it, and it may not stick.

I've mostly heard of student-teachers failing their practicums from posting pictures of them partying, or partying with students (as the drinking age is 18 here in AB). I also heard of someone getting the boot during the last two weeks of their nine-week practicum for being foul mouthed at a hockey game and there were members of the school board a couple rows behind him (this was told to my practicum group by our university liason). On the otherhand, it really depends where you are situated, if you are in a more conservative juristiction you have to be more cautious. I know of teachers in other places where it is not as much of an issue.

Two words, one name.  Just my middle name :)

I didn't even notice Bogie in the blog post!! Awesome...I think that I'll have to watch the Maltese Falcon when I get home.

Hi Laura, you rock! Eager to hear some new stuff. Are you going to be playing anytime soon in Van?

I"m suprised mountin and tree's aren't in the list, they proabably come close, maybe top ten

finished painting?

Candy Killers

Vegetable Heads

The Laura Smiths

Green Shirts

I guess my lame suggestion is 'portmanteau'..I don't know how catchy it is though..

I just wrote Lola on the Radio on twitter and liked the sound of it.

shorter?..umm...Radio Lola? :)

YOU KNOW IT! I just brought my mattress back into the room and am putting the rest of the room back together...art on the walls...

I dont know what i'm going to do to distract myself now....my brother went into the hospital last night and had his appendix removed (is that a band name?) and my friend Dom that is in Haiti was just telling me about being shot at.

Going to have to eat my stress away i guess.

How topical! i think zach told me one day that it was between Zolas and Tic Toc Tic...which is the album name consequently...

After hearing the way Laura said it, I'm suggesting "Song Subjects" as a band name.

how 'bout Laurada (emphasis on the second syllable)

the Smithicles! Or better yet - Laura Smith and her Smithicles. That's Bucky-best-band-name territory, that is! :)

environmental?

CaneToad

Zebramusselcrossing

How about some super nerdy names like

Band Name = null

Man, I haven't been vanity surfing for a while. I still show up quite a lot. Has a lot to do with giving presentations at software conferences. You end up on lists that end up being indexed by google.

I've eliminated my public facebook profile, I think. Now, there's a girl showing up with my name in Facebook (kirby). I have Dynasty to thank for that, for bringing in a female character with that name back in the 80's. Before then, I don't think anyone had even heard the name.

I also when looking for kribnotes, which is what I use elsewhere. I created my R3 profile first and then found "krib" was taken in a few places, so I went to "kribnotes" but haven't bothered making a change here on R3.

Kribnote seems to be all referring to me

why DOES this happen during your show lana? Kate McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright's mom died...

I like "ecstatic cling"

I entered 'pick a band name' into my 1975 BandNamer3000 from Ronco© and it came up with this:

Woodsmith Hologram

Riffing off one of yours, howzabout Tyrannosaurus Sex? (Perhaps a better name for a monster vibrator, but still.)

if...then...else

divide by zero

buffer overflow

null pointer (with an optional "exception" tacked on the end if you want to really nerd out)

8-second rule (has to do with the generally accepted amount of time someone will wait for a response from a screen or web page - nothing dirty!)

blue screen of death (a bit macabre sounding, I think)

silicon jungle

----

or, nerdy and pop-culturally:

the Fail Whales

Friend-unFriend

Blogspotters

that's even relevant today!

supposedly, it's a quote from Ted Kennedy at a costume Party

"they don't call me Tyrannosaurus Sex for nothing!"

how about...

the dj black city band project

lol

A good practice when inventing a new band name, especially if you want to try and attain top level Google returns, is to google the portmanteau (your invented word or name), and if no results, or at least no exact results turn up, you have a potential home run. For example: Lauraband Smith

"I Lost my Darryl Sittler Hockey Card Against the Boy's Bathroom Door."

Oh, painful memories.